Simultaneous ranging and self-positioning in unsynchronized wireless acoustic sensor networks
Automatic ranging and self-positioning is a very desirable property in wireless acoustic sensor networks, where nodes have at least one microphone and one loudspeaker. However, due to environmental noise, interference, and multipath effects, audio-based ranging is a challenging task. This paper presents a fast ranging and positioning strategy that makes use of the correlation properties of pseudonoise sequences for estimating simultaneously relative time-of-arrivals from multiple acoustic nodes. To this end, a proper test signal design adapted to the acoustic node transducers is proposed. In addition, a novel self-interference reduction method and a peak matching algorithm are introduced, a…
An Efficient Implementation of Parallel Parametric HRTF Models for Binaural Sound Synthesis in Mobile Multimedia
The extended use of mobile multimedia devices in applications like gaming, 3D video and audio reproduction, immersive teleconferencing, or virtual and augmented reality, is demanding efficient algorithms and methodologies. All these applications require real-time spatial audio engines with the capability of dealing with intensive signal processing operations while facing a number of constraints related to computational cost, latency and energy consumption. Most mobile multimedia devices include a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) that is primarily used to accelerate video processing tasks, providing high computational capabilities due to its inherent parallel architecture. This paper describes…
SARS-CoV-2 infection and venous thromboembolism after surgery: an international prospective cohort study
SARS-CoV-2 has been associated with an increased rate of venous thromboembolism in critically ill patients. Since surgical patients are already at higher risk of venous thromboembolism than general populations, this study aimed to determine if patients with peri-operative or prior SARS-CoV-2 were at further increased risk of venous thromboembolism. We conducted a planned sub-study and analysis from an international, multicentre, prospective cohort study of elective and emergency patients undergoing surgery during October 2020. Patients from all surgical specialties were included. The primary outcome measure was venous thromboembolism (pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis) within 30 da…
A Parallel Approach to HRTF Approximation and Interpolation Based on a Parametric Filter Model
[EN] Spatial audio-rendering techniques using head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) are currently used in many different contexts such as immersive teleconferencing systems, gaming, or 3-D audio reproduction. Since all these applications usually involve real-time constraints, efficient processing structures for HRTF modeling and interpolation are necessary for providing real-time binaural audio solutions. This letter presents a parametric parallel model that allows us to perform HRTF filtering and interpolation efficiently from an input HRTF dataset. The resulting model, which is an adaptation from a recently proposed modeling technique, not only reduces the size of HRTF datasets signific…